Jakesr5

Looks great!
The bed roll bars look great. I think an idea to try is getting some sand and get it wet kinda like sand castle wet and pack it in the tube before you bend it where you end it and that should help with some of the rippling. How are you securing that rack to your truck?

I need to make my hi lift mount so I can show you. Or you can make yours and I can get some more ideas haha it looking good.

rattlewagon

Agree on the sand. Tape one end off, fill the whole toob with sand tight, then cap the other end off and bend. Only way to get smooth bends out of that thing.

Jakesr5

Haha not to bad advertising we have

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the compliments guys! Means a lot. Jakesr5, you might beat me to it! lol, but I do have some ideas for a locking brace for the jack, just not sure how I want to execute.

Thanks for the sand idea. I thought about that before, and I just don't have any sand laying around. It would have been the better way to go though. Rattlewagon, on your cage, did you use the sand method to make all those bends, or do you just so happen to have an awesome pipe bender?

And Jake, YA! talk about irony in advertising. It is like the computer knows...

Well, one of my new toys showed up in the mail:




I will hopefully get it installed tonight! I will be able to accurately monitor engine temp this way. Current gauge is WAY off, and glowshift just looks cool.

While I waited for parts, I had to keep myself busy:


Made in Western Germany, the real wall hanging grandfather clock deal, picked it up for free.


Works great for being over 30 years old. Being an engineer I love these old mechanisms. sometimes I miss the art and intuition that was put into technology.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

no sand in nevada?



i spy sand in this picture...

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

LOL...

with my little eye... believe it or not irab, it is just small rock. Now if I lived in Fallon, then I could have all the sand in the world lol. There is a reason they call it the oasis of Nevada.

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

DAHHH!!! (sigh) I can't find any new or reburbished connecting rods for the 3800! I can get everything else, including a crank kit, but no connecting rods... wth ... short of having the rods turned and polished, I am not sure if this swap is a good idea or not, especially since I don't know if the spun bearing caused any cracking on the rod.

I know these 3.0s run a long time if properly taken care of, and mine is still running strong with almost all new components. If I rebuild the 3.8 as planned, it will last a long time as well, but I get the feeling it is going to start getting more expensive than I want it to, especially since I will need to replace the connecting rods as well. At that rate, going to the junkyard and getting another engine is just as expensive, but it won't be rebuilt...

I am wondering if I should just be happy with the 3.0, gain a little hp here and there, and spend the money on other things like LT suspension, utility racks, bumpers and tires. But more hp is so much fun! I have gone back and forth so many times on this issue, I am just spinning around in circles now. I know what almost everyones opinion is on the 3.0, and I have seen a lot of them run a very long time, even in prerunners!

It is not that I don't have faith in the 3.0, I am just power hungry. The 3.0 does great around town, it really does, but these 10% grade summits are getting old having to downshift and over rev. What to do... What to do...

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Sorry Jake, I missed your question. I drilled through the angle iron and used the old and existing hardware and holes in the bed rail from the previous lumber rack to secure it on. Worked out quite well.

Jakesr5

no problem,
thats how i did it just 4 1/2inch bolts on each side and its not going any where!!
i still dont understand what all the hait is in the 3.0 i love mine it goes 65+ on the highway going to vail and other mountain towns. and i have got it to 100mph before even though it was very very scary and my antenna has a nice curve to it know. any ways a 3.8 would be a lot of fun!!!

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Well, a member of this forum is convincing me to swap in a 1UZFE... very very tempting. In fact, it is so tempting I have posted my 3vze up for sale in the member classifieds. IF anyone takes it, I will be doing the swap, either 3.8 Buick or 4.0 Lexus, still haven't figured that part out. Feel free to hit me up if anyone is interested or has any comments on the swap. I want to hear your opinions! I could be "happy" with the 3.0...

irab88

iTrader: (4)

i have the plans for the 1uz bellhousing to r-series transmission adapter. the guy on ebay doesn't respond to his sales much.

pm me if you want them

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

(sigh) I am very grateful for all the help the members here that have been willing to help with the swap, but I am going to have to forfeit the idea. Taxes... are not good to us this year... going to have to postpone the swap. It is money that, well, is going to get collected by our freak government, but I would rather spend the rest of it on blazelands LT kit and a rear disc swap. The 3.0 runs great, but will eventually need some TLC. So for now, thank you to all who have been supportive and willing to help make the swap cheap as possible. If next year turns out to be a better year, trust me, I will be bugging you again.

But, I started a crossover elimination mod, hope to have pics up tomorrow, and the new Glowshift gauge is awesome. Is 205 degrees F too much when climbing a 10% summit? Thank you everyone, sorry about all the back and forth! probably think I am somewhat crazy...

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

well, here it is. After almost 50 hours of stress, knuckle busting and neck straining work, I got the bloody crossover done. Am I happy with the results? no... Does it look ugly? yes... Am I a great fabricator? work in progress... Did it lower under hood temps? you bet it did. lol...


Had to lift the cab off the frame a couple inches for it to slide out. Funny, the exhaust nuts came off with relative ease. The pipe that goes to the muffler is a different story...


There it is, ready to be hacked up and re-used. I used the passenger flange to make my drop down pipe.


YES! I know... flex pipe... not the best but certaintly cheap. Did I say this was only temporary?


THIS THING!!! Had to be the last bolt... But I always win a fight. an impact, special stripped nut sockets and a lot of swearing later, it lost... I even re-used it.


Sadly this was the easiest thing to make.


Woohoo! no more crossover! I still sense an exhaust leak somewhere...


new driver side...


I HATE flux core. I mean it has its place, but it is not on thin exhaust pipe. Feel free to criticize.


new pipe right up to the flange.


passenger side drop. beauty of flex pipe is you can bend it to your will. barely clears the lines.


Thrush turbo muffler no cat. We don't need no stinkin' emissions! (really, elko county doesn't have smog requirements)


and here is one of the reasons, I should take my time when doing this kind of stuff... what is up with the low hanging muffler?!?!? well, when you are in a hurry, have been dealing with this for a long time, and can't get your welder close enough to the truck... you end up with this... soon to be fixed.

I am not entirely happy with the outcome. Actually kinda embarrased by the hack job, but I figured I would post so you all would see what NOT to do. I went straight from the manifold to 2.25 inch pipe, and then to a 2.5 inch muffler. In all honesty, I feel I have lost power, probably due to a missing vacuum line. I started the egr delete but decided against it for now, so I might have a misplaced vacuum line, the ecu keeps trying to raise the idle even after it is warmed up, not sure what I missed.

On a happy note...

The new gauge is awesome. Can't wait to buy more! AFR gauge is in order.

Well, feel free to criticize. I probably missed something but I will probably post it later. Enjoy.

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Another thing I am not happy with... the sound. was hoping for more buh_buh_buh_buh and not ph_ph_ph_ph.

http://s1328.photobucket.com/user/ch...bxakj.mp4.html

let me know if the video works, but what do you guys think? I know this is a V6, but it doesn't seem to have a lot of grunt. sounds airy, like the exhaust gases are just leaking past the muffle like a leaky air hose... not sure how to explain it. The overall tone is great, but the background of the muffler just kind of sucks.

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Hopefully I am not boring anyone to death with this stuff. I know it has been done a ton of times on this forum, so it is really nothing new. I will try to post more intersting stuff in the future.

But I am starting to come around to the sound of the exhaust. I now know I truly have an exhaust leak, but you can only hear it when the engine is under load, which makes it difficult to find when you are driving down the road...

I will fix the location of the muffler eventually, but I will say that I gained a good amount of low end torque. It really picks up now even at 2100 rpm. Not blazing fast but it now sits me in the seat when I hit the throttle. Before when I first got the truck, there was no response when pedal hit the metal, not it likes to take off.

Hope for more interesting topics soon.

Jakesr5

No it sounds great and that's not boring when you are increasing performance and making it sound cool to boot. I like the sound, and I'm new to this what is a cross over? I would love to do it you have the 3.0 as we'll right.

It's funny about a year ago my muffler had been rusted through so it sounded cool but that was it

I could just cut holes in the bottom I guess

No I like it keep posting the progress

Jake,

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Jake! Glad someone enjoys it.

Ya I have the 3.0, the crossover is the pipe that takes exhaust gases from the passenger side manifold and dumps it into the driver side manifold, right where number 6 cylinder. All the exhaust gases then exit out the driver manifold on the bottom side. It is a huge bottleneck with colliding gases, very inefficient. And supposedly the extra heat by cylinder 6 causes the infamous head gasket issue.

If you look at the pic of the crossover, that pipe is extremely small, ridiculous. I opened up the pipe to 2.25" at the manifolds, this helps reduce exhaust reversion, encouraging the exhaust to scavenge out of the cylinder better.

There are tons of guys who have done it, I would search through the forums and look at everyones and get an idea of what you would want to do. I went under the driveline because it keeps the pipe away from brake and fuel lines on the frame rail, and I will eventually build a skid plate to protect it since it is at the same level as the trans crossmember.

If you have a drivetrain lift or diff drop, you could probably squeeze the pipe between the trans and driveshaft. Others have routed the pipe around the backside of the transfer case.

My old muffler rotted out too, so I just cut the thing off and left the CAT. It was fairly loud but I didn't like the sound. The Thrush Turbo muffler actually quited it up, with a little more lug. If you need any more pointers I left out of the previous post hit me up if you go for the mod. Again, lifting the body off the frame makes sliding the crossover out a breeze.

Jakesr5

Oh that's cool I like the sound of more power but i thing I should start small... Would you be able to post or pm me about more specifically how you did the isr please?

Jake,

rustED

iTrader: (2)

Nice work on the bed/light bar, it turned out really good! I like the Glow Shift gauges too, I was just looking at those yesterday, thinking about getting some for my 4 runner, nice work so far!

chukarhunt

iTrader: (1)

I will post it on here since I plan on changing it anyways

Spectre makes cheaper intakes that seem to be of good quality. The air filter I bought fits both 3 and 4 inch pipe. I used Spectre 3 inch filter with the 3 inch flexible pipe that you can buy at Oreillys or Autozone.

From what I understand, the vacuum hoses that run to the air box silencers are for egr and pair (someone please correct me if I am wrong) but either way they supply vacuum to all the switches on the passenger side. Since I don't need emissions I disconnected the EGR and Pair, and only hooked up the necessary vacuum lines (I think, truck started idle surging and it doesn't engine brake like it used to). My point is if you don't need emissions, doing the ISR is easier, otherwise you need to create new vacuum ports in the new pipe.

This is what I am going to do and suggest everyone does for the greatest gain (again there are write ups on this, find one that meets your needs cause this is just me):
1) get the Supra AFM, it has a much larger air opening and is cheap and plug in (found in early model supras and cressidas).
2)Then buy yourself a 4 inch air filter that mounts to a 4 inch pipe like spectre or K&N.
3)Get a PVC 4 inch flat top cap that the filter can mount onto, drill and cut the cap for the AFM to mount to.
4)buy 4 inch PVC pipe to run from the other side of the AFM to the throttle body. I suggest using a long 45 degree sweep. The fewer the bends the better (no 90s).
5)drill vacuum holes for vacuum lines to attach to using barbed fittings, unless you did the EGR Pair delete.
6) I am actually not sure how you would mount the PVC pipe to the throttle body or AFM. I haven't gotten that far. Someone elses thread will probably have it. Worst case there is nothing wrong with 3 inch pipe as it will have tighter mounting clearances.

I hope I covered everything. Mounting the Air filter/AFM is up to you, but I suggest protecting the filter from water using a covering of sorts, but to each its own. I used the stock air box locations to mount to.

Hope this helps.